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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24320941">Phoenix</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pikestaff/pseuds/pikestaff'>pikestaff</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>What If This Storm Ends (Renegades Universe) [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Hawke Killing People, that's it that's the fic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:54:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>792</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24320941</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/pikestaff/pseuds/pikestaff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A group of thugs capture Hawke to try to get some information out of her on Anders' whereabouts.  This is probably the worst decision they've ever made.  In fact, it definitely is.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anders/Female Hawke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>What If This Storm Ends (Renegades Universe) [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/743256</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Phoenix</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When they first brought the woman to their base, the young Rivaini man was nervous.</p><p>He might not have been the oldest or most experienced person there, but he knew enough to know that this woman was toying with them.  He saw the way she moved, easily, almost nonchalantly.  She could escape whenever she wanted to.  She had let them capture her.</p><p>They shoved her down in a chair and he looked her up and down.  Most of her face, except for her mouth and chin, was obscured by a hood.  She wore bizarre, pointed armor complete with a fur lining that was sticky with mud and ichor and sharp, curved talons on the right gauntlet.  Her left arm and hand were bare, and her nails were short and chipped and there was dirt and dried blood underneath.</p><p>The leader of the Rivani man’s gang approached and nodded at her.  “They say,” he said, “That you love the most hated man in Thedas.”</p><p>“They say that, but they would be wrong,” said the woman, and her statement was so straightforward that everyone there was caught off guard.  Had they taken the wrong person?  But then she continued, “I love him enough to make up for any hate the world has towards him.  And then twice over again.”</p><p>The leader laughed at that.  “Silly little bird,” he said.  “Little Fereldan bird,” he added, because the woman’s accent was very unmistakably from that southern land.</p><p>“Careful,” someone else said, with a voice that was only half-joking.  “I hear Fereldans are savage and bite like their dogs.”</p><p>The Rivaini man said nothing, but squinted at the woman in the chair.  Judging by her body language, she was still utterly at peace.  The bare fingers of her left hand were tapping her knee, just a bit, as if out of boredom.</p><p>The leader unsheathed his sword, and his other men followed suit.  “You, my little Fereldan bird,” he said, “Will tell me where this man is.”</p><p>“And if I don’t?”  There was no fear in her voice whatsoever.</p><p>“Then,” said the crew leader, “You die.  You may fight like a dog, but even you have no chance against ten of us.  So.  You will cooperate.”</p><p>The woman smirked, and she leaned forward in the chair, her arms over her knees.  “There is probably something you should know about me,” she said.  Then she tilted her hood just enough to reveal icy blue eyes, and blood across her face.  “I’m a mage.”</p><p>Everything after that happened in seconds and the Rivaini man couldn’t even begin to follow what was happening.  He just knew that the woman was standing, hands palm up and glowing with power, and then their leader was dead on the ground, frozen solid, the part of him that used to be one of his arms shattered into a dozen pieces.  Before the others could react, they, too, were dead.  One of them by an electric bolt so bright that everything flashed white for a split second, several others by a firestorm that swept across the room and then extinguished itself as quickly as it had come.  One man screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his head, eyes wide with terror before he expired completely, and the Rivaini man didn’t know what had happened to him but he started to run–</p><p>–and then the woman was atop him before he could even finish turning around.  He fell to the ground and landed on his back with a heavy thud and the mage atop him.  Her hood had fallen off in the melee.  She was wild-eyed and had short, stiff black hair that stuck up a million ways, and if he didn’t know better, he’d say she was almost grinning.  “You,” she said, “Are going to tell me why you want him.”  She had her claws around his neck.</p><p>The man gasped.  “Bounty,” he said.  “He’s worth enough gold to feed us all a year.”</p><p>“Bounty?  Given by whom?”</p><p>“Some rogue templar group.  I don’t know what they’re called.  I swear.”</p><p>The woman let out a sort of snorting laugh.  She was utterly mad, the Rivaini man thought, but clearly that was no deterrence to her.  After all, he and his cronies had not exactly been the winners in this scenario.</p><p>She ran a metal claw along his throat.  “Thank you for the information.  Tell your friends that if they try to touch me or the man they’re after, I will kill every last one of them.”</p><p>The Rivaini man could tell that she was absolutely serious, and he nodded as best as he could underneath her grasp.  Then the woman stood up and the man scrambled away.  Hopefully, he would never see her again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>No I'm not "back", sorry. I wrote this a few years ago and decided I'm proud enough of it that it warranted its own fic outside of the compilation it had been sitting in. I hope you're all doing well!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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